SATA questions

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Executioner
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SATA questions

Post by Executioner »

Gents,
I have an older mobo that I'm going to be using, and I would like to try using a SATA drive. The mobo does not have any connections for this type of HD, only ATA133.

What is the difference between serial ATA150 and SATA 3.0gb/s?

Are there differences between add-in cards for SATA support?

How many devices can you add to a SATA controller?

Any other info?
Jim Z
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Post by Jim Z »

What is the difference between serial ATA150 and SATA 3.0gb/s?
well, other than 2x the theoretical data rate (SATA I is 1.5 gb/s, SATA II is 3.0 gb/s.) true SATA II also has support for native command queuing (NCQ.) NCQ in a nutshell means that the drive and controller are intelligent enough to execute commands in the fastest order, rather than the order in which they're issued.
Are there differences between add-in cards for SATA support?
some are native SATA, others are ATA133 with a bridge chip.
How many devices can you add to a SATA controller?
depends on the controller. You can only connect one drive per connector, so if the card has two connectors, you can plug in two drives.
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Executioner
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Post by Executioner »

Thanks for the reply Jim. After reading more about SATA, I've decided it's not worth it unless it's already built into the mobo. If I use an add-in card, then it's limited to the PCI bus speed, defeating the purpose of SATA performance over ATA. So for my old rig, I'll just stay with either SCSI or ATA drives.
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Bigal
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That's the conclusion....

Post by Bigal »

....that I came to with some of my old systems. Besides, only the newer SATA drives come with NCQ, and they are more expensive than the generic SATA drives that have been out for the last two years. With IDE drives so cheap, it's hard to justify unless you must have that last 10% speed improvement and you can get the faster SATA interface with the NCQ SATA drives. :D
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